Thursday, November 4, 2010

City Seeks Pest Control Services For Brooklyn Bridge Park

The Bloomberg administration recently laid off 63 of the city's 84 pest control workers.

A video capture of rats in Collect Pond Park in lower Manhattan in July. On October 29 - the same day the Brooklyn Bridge Park RFP for pest control was published - the City released bid documents for the long delayed re-construction of the park dubbed "Rat Zoo." The Bids are due December 8, 2010.

On October 29, a Request for Proposals (RFP) for pest control in

Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) was released. According to the ad posted in the City Record, the park "is seeking bids for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and extermination services for the park. The Contractor shall furnish all supervision, labor, materials and equipment necessary to accomplish the monitoring, management and pest removal components of the pest program. The Contractor shall perform inspections (frequency and timing to be agreed upon by both BBP and the Selected Respondent) and provide proper identification, management and treatment of pests consistent with IPM principles in order to maintain, control and to prevent infestations."

"Absolutely not," Regina Myer, president of the city development corporation overseeing the park’s construction, told the New York Post on Wednesday when asked about the solicitation.

Myer said the contract is about being "pro-active" so that mice, rats and other pests never become an issue at the waterfront park, according to the paper. She said Skanska, which is building the park, provided pest control services early on and before the sections at Piers 1 and 6 in Brooklyn Heights were completed earlier this year.

The bids are due November 19, 2010.

Let's hope the park rats aren't as big as what Brooklyn-based transportation consultant Brian Ketcham recently caught. The bloody creature-the size of a small possum - was rummaging through his front yard on Pacific Street in Brooklyn. It seems that the rats had been initially attracted by Trader Joe's, around the corner from Brian's house, when the store's garbage disposal system had broken down and waste was left on the street for pick up, according to the Neighborhood Retail Alliance.

5 comments:

Regina Myer may think she "absolutely" doesn't have a problem, but the pictures tell a different story. I live near Brooklyn Bridge Park, in a nice neighborhood often visited by tourists -- and we're overrun by rats. You can hardly walk down the street without seeing rats scampering across your path. At night, you can hear them rummaging through the trash. And the problem has gotten much, much worse in recent months. It's disgusting.So is Regina going to hire someone to lay out poison so these rats die in our homes? The "rat poison" signs are plentiful on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Parks (and Brooklyn Bridge Park) are spending money on extermination, but they'll always have rats as long as the city ignores the larger problem.One night this summer, when walking home from the Borough Hall 4/5 station, I counted close to a dozen rats -- I called 311 to complain. They told me the Health Department would call me and look into it. I never heard back.

I am a ground floor tenant of Riverside Apartments, across Furman Street and the BQE from BBP. The last year has been hellish with a very heavy rat infestation of Building C, which faces Columbia Place. I spent many hours documenting the rodent droppings, live rodent sitings and the unsanitary practices of the landlord with 311, Department of Health and DHCR. Many things over these several months have been done, but the building still harbors rats. Whatever Skanska did, did not capture all the rats but drive them to the residential buildings nearby.